Book Stats 
Stars: 2 Stars 
Start Date: 05/02/24 
Ending Date: 05 /12/24 
Genre: YA Historical Romance Fantasy 
Form: E-Arc/ ALC 
Page Count: 368 
Publishing Date: 05/14/24 
Point of View: Dual 1st Person 
Setting:  Civil War America 

My Blog: https://tanyasreading.wordpress.com/2024/05/13/the-dangerous-ones-by-lauren-black-wood/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6447014930

Thank you MacMillan Audio for the Audiobook Arc exchange for an honest review. Thank you Edelweiss for the E-Arc in exchange for an honest review. 

The Dangerous Ones is set in the Antebellum/ Civil War period where vampires had slaves, were helping the confederate states keep and uphold the Constitution of Slavery in the Southern States of America.  Jerusalem, a former slave who ran away after her family was killed by a set of vampires who enslaved her, met a group of people who are called Saints. Saints are people who have demi-god strength and powers who can kill vampires, and are helping the Union Army in the war effort to unify the country and kill the vampires.  She meets Alexi, a 300 year old vampire who is helping the Saints and the Union Army in the cause.  Jerusalem and Alexi are both looking for the same vampire who caused them harm. For Jerusalem, it’s the one who enslaved her, killed her family and may have her brother. For Alexi, it’s the one who made him a monster and tortured him. 

This had so much potential to be good because the premise reminded me so much of Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Dread Nation. Taking the historical event like the Civil war and flip on its head by adding Vampires or other supernatural creatures trying to help the Confederate States and Zombies that change the course of the war. 

This really needs to be edited better because the chapters are too long with the POV Switches between Alexi and Jerusalem inside one chapter felt disjointed. Then add the fact you also have it switching from present time to flashbacks from Jerusalem or Alexi in the chapter as well. This book is 350 pages and it’s only 15 chapters which could have spilt up to at least 4 or 5 chapters. One of the chapters was 41 pages long which in the audiobook it was an hour and seventeen mins long. Some people's attention span is not long in which a couple times I found myself zone out. 

 I really don’t like how the flashbacks were used as well. You go from her running away from her enslavers to two years since that happened and using the flashback to fill the holes between those times.  Like how Jerusalem met the Saints and Alexi is all flashback that you get either in her or his pov but not in real time.  Something that important should be told in real time and then you can time jump. It doesn’t work when you are trying to establish a relationship between Jerusalem and the Saints that she met after she ran away. It really doesn’t work when you are trying to convince readers that a love story is supposed to be brewing between our main two characters. When part of the development and interaction is flashback and not in the present. 

It is almost like cutting corners while doing all the work. I do like fast pace books that get to the point but I like well throughout fast pace books which this one is not it. Especially if it’s at the detriment of you developing your characters, the relationship between the characters, the world building and the story you are trying to tell as a whole. 

Jerusalem is just so damn impulsive for damn good which I’m trying so hard to understand since have been enslaved her whole life and her family has been killed. She is really the definition of fighting now, asking questions later which gets her so much trouble. Like if she was near Harriett Tubman she would smack the living shit out of her. She is 18 but the way she verbally talks down to Alexi who is supposed to be in love with her, she feels like a two year old learning a new word and keeps repeating it over and over again.  Which that word is either dumbass, smartass, stupid-ass, cute ass, white boy, and anything else that she sticks the world ass to. It's supposed to be playful banter but just not working at all and the borderline feels toxic. Jerusalem’s narrator seems like she was always out of breath as if she was reading too fast. You can clearly hear her intake of breath which gets very annoying as you continue to listen. 

This was supposed to be set in 1863 but the way Jerusalem talks modern you would say this was set in the present day. Who the hell in 1863 going to use the word “reparations"?  Especially the fact it’s during the war meaning that the slaves are not officially free yet. The modern talk could have worked if this was a time traveling story. Like if she was  from our time and get sent back to 1863 to help an ancestor who was an OG saint and former slave. Then it would have made sense since she wouldn’t be from that time at all. 

Alexi's narrator was good but the fact he is supposed to be an eternally immorally 18 year old teenage boy who is just 300 year old, doesn't fit the narrator's voice at all. He should sound younger like a teenager and not like he is almost a 40 years old man even if he is 300 years old.  I cringed every time he called Jerusalem his nickname he gave her which is Tiny or called her small. He just doesn’t sound right saying it at all.  Also the fact that he is supposed to be in love with her but feels like obsession more than love.  

This doesn’t feel properly researched at all as well. The only battle that was mentioned was the Battle of Gettysburg and the only historical figures mentioned were Lee and Grant.  Like there wasn't more battle than that in Civil War that you could have incorporated the vampire into.  Since the author did put the Underground Railroad they could have easily made a character that was almost like Harriet Tubman and made her into a Saint. 

The characters are super underdeveloped to the point that if the character is not either Alexi or Jerusalem, they are very disposable and don't add anything of value to the story.  Its one character I was supposed to care about but I could care less once something happens to them. Even the main villain feels so one dimensional and just there for the main two characters to have something in common.  She is supposed to be 3,000 years old aka created before the time of Christ for goodness sakes and it’s nothing interesting about her. Like where did she come from? Why did she think it was a good idea to go to America, go to the south and help the south with slavery?  She has zero backstory at all! Then for her to kill so easily at the hands of an 18 year old child?  For a story about Vampires there is hardly any lore for the vampires that are in the story. 

For a story that is supposed to be about Civil War and incorporating vampires and demi-gods into the story, the world building and magical system explanation feels so nonexistent. Ok the Vampires come from Europe but why did they decide to come to America and own slaves?  The Saints are supposed to have demi-god powers but how do they get them? What makes them so special to be born with this super strength that others are not? Did we have to make a damn joke about the Underground Railroad not being “Underground”?  Did we have to spend 10-15 something pages of the Underground council trying to decide if the vampire can use the passages with Jerusalem just for him to shift as a bird to go with her? 

 

This book had so much potential to fall so flat. 

It honestly would have been better if it was set in the present day instead of the Civil War period. 

I was going to read This Wicked Halls from this author but after being so disappointed in the book it’s a no go.